Bytes and Borscht

Topic

conflict research

A collection of 6 issues

The Byzantine Heritage in Russian Security Culture

I would argue that Byzantium remains a key driver of Russian (strategic) security and intelligence culture. In this post I want to explore how I came to this conclusion and talk about how Byzantine "intelligence traditions" influenced Russian statecraft across the ages.

Understanding the Russian Way of Deterrence

Since the dawn of the nuclear age, deterrence has stood as one of the central pillars in international security policy. Initially conceptualized in the West to prevent total war through mutual threat of retaliation, ..

Breathe in, breathe out - and then start writing.

A lot of fuss has been made about the fact that Russia released their revised nuclear doctrine pretty much the day that Ukraine used long-range missiles to attack targets inside Russia.

Kursk? More like curse!

The first (major) incursion into Russian soil by enemy troops since the Second World War might end up being much more costly for Vladimir Putin outside of the battlefield than on it.

It's cyberwar-o-clock .. or something like that.

As was the case at the beginning of the war in Ukraine a year and a half ago, reports about the possible role of cyberattacks in this conflict emerged relatively quickly shortly after the events that shook Israel on October 7, 2023.

Cyber is effective. Explosions are effective-er.

The publication of documents that allegedly describe the work of a Russian IT company on behalf of Russian intelligence services caused quite a stir in various journalistic publications at the end of March this year.